


like scheherazade

by thegeneralgirl



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, There is literally no plot, gratuitous post game fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-17 03:29:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11267028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegeneralgirl/pseuds/thegeneralgirl
Summary: The Great Deku Tree had said she had a smile like the sun. — Link and Zelda, at the dawn of a new age.





	like scheherazade

Her smile shines brighter than his first glimpse of the sun after a hundred years.  
  
He’d brought down Ganon, and then she’d sealed the Calamity and saved them both. Link had been careful to keep his distance even as she’d turned and looked exactly as he’d remembered her; mindful of bruises, of scrapes—mindful of the fact that no matter what echos in his heart, she’d first resented him, and then been failed in the worst of ways even after she’d extended her hand and her friendship.

But _do you really remember me_ , she’d asked, and Link is stunned by the joy that blooms across her face with just a single nod of his head. He feels hot all over, like he’s just taken the most potent warming elixir that he has, and she—Zelda, _Zelda_ —is staring at him as if he’s so much more than just someone who’d been too many years too late. And then she’s crying and his hands are itching to wipe her tears away and then a blur of movement, a collision of bodies—

 _Their bodies_ , Link realizes in a daze, and he’s clutching her to him or Zelda is clutching him to her—does it really matter? is there a distinction?—and she’s so warm, she’s so warm and real and alive and she’s here with him and Hyrule’s safe, _she’s safe_ —

They hold each other for a long time.

**-**

 

Link insists that she rest at Riverside Stable for a while. The people are buzzing with the news of Calamity Ganon’s defeat, and many murmur of the bright, divine light that had spilled forth from the castle in the predawn hours. The princess, some muse, must have finally given her life to vanquish the evil.

Link has Zelda wrapped in his hood and doublet, both to keep her warm and to spare her the attention that he knew she’d hate. He’d changed from his bloody Champion’s Tunic into a spare set of armor, and with the Master Sword sheathed, none of the other Hylians give the bedraggled travelers a second glance.  
  
Instead, he leads Zelda to the back of the stable, where they settle against a bale of hay out of sight of prying eyes.

She keeps his hand clasped in hers.  
  
Zelda is still too ethereal, like she’s not quite of this world yet, and Link is terrified that he’ll look away just to catch her dissolving into sparks out of the corner of his eye. Her hand, solid in his, is the only reassurance keeping him from dragging her back against him, frantic in making sure she won’t leave him behind.  
  
They sit huddled together, and Link watches as Zelda simply breathes.  
  
“Thank you,” she says after a long moment, and then looks down at their intertwined hands.

Flushing, Link shakes his head (she’d saved him first, after all) and moves to untangle their fingers, thinking her uncomfortable. Zelda stops him with a single firm tug.  
  
“I don’t...I don’t want to let go yet,” she confesses, and the uncertainty in her voice makes Link want to tell her that she never has to, if she doesn’t wish it.

Instead, he says: “I’m here.”  
  
Something in his voice must reassure her, because Zelda turns to look at him and there’s a familiar glow in her eyes. It reminds him of a banked fire in the hearth—of home.

“You’re here,” Zelda agrees, and her words are a benediction, the feeling shaking Link to the core and leaving him shivering in its wake.

She shifts nearer still, and now they breathe, now they exist, pressed shoulder to thigh.  
  
Above them, the sun rises over a new day.

 

-

**fin**

**Author's Note:**

> I 100% did not expect to fall in love with BotW's story like this. I have two other self-indulgent post-game wip's and I don't think I'll be able to stop hahaha...ha... /trails off weakly into the distance


End file.
